The Canary Islands celebrate this May 1 with the most important sector on the islands at the center of the economic and social debate
In 1889, it was officially agreed to establish May 1 as International Workers' Day in tribute to the demonstrations that took place in Chicago four years earlier to demand a 48-hour work day.
A celebration that has been respected for more than a century internationally, although with some specific moments of tension; like those experienced right now in the Canary Islands with the sector that has the greatest weight at a labor level in the archipelago: tourism.
No one who doesn't live in a cave could have been unaware of the demonstrations on April 20th, in which a hodgepodge of slogans was launched by the dozens of associations that joined the fray, but which broadly wanted to make one thing clear: the demonstrators want a change in the economic and social model of the Canary Islands, and that involves touching tourism.
Among those organizing associations were “Las Kellys”, the association of housekeepers that triples the number of years and national presence of many of those present at 20A and who took advantage of the exposure of the demonstration to once again make their demands visible. , among which are early retirement, linking the category of hotels to the quality of the work they generate or increasing labor inspections.
Some demands that have been spreading for almost a decade, but that have now been annexed to the 'Canarias se Agota' movement and represent another front for the tourism sector that already sees out of the corner of its eye how the councils and the regional government begin to sit down with the protesters to listen to your requests.
In the days before 20A, the president of Kellys Unión Tenerife, Mónica García González, released a statement in which she announced that they would participate in the demonstration and which included the following:
"We are not against tourism, on the contrary, tourism is necessary for the economy of our island, obviously with a control that does not overcrowd us and that is in accordance with what is sold at tourism fairs, which is quality and happiness, and that unfortunately does not apply to our daily lives.
Beds are sold, at 90% and even 100%, when there is no staff to meet that hotel demand, and it is not that we do not want to work, what we do not want is to be slaves to our bosses, who happily sell and do not remember that We are the ones who keep their clients semi-happy, because with the overload that we have, we cannot keep them extremely happy.”
With a tourism sector that is singled out by a part of society, a political class that does not know who to keep happy and a social mass that is adding movements to obtain support for their demands against the tourism model, a May 1 is expected heated up in the various demonstrations held on the islands.
In Gran Canaria, the event will be in San Telmo Park and it is already taken for granted that the demands and messages of 'Canarias se Agota' will be present in the rallies that will take place in the archipelago.
